


Bright Light City Gonna Set My Soul on Fire

by TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Accidental Marriage, M/M, after that last story I needed something kind of wholesome, excessive hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 06:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15382218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy/pseuds/TylerAndAlexAndCeddyOhMy
Summary: The day after the Lightning's inaugural visit to Vegas Jake and Yanni wake up married.





	Bright Light City Gonna Set My Soul on Fire

**Author's Note:**

> One million thank yous to my beta Verbaeghe!!!
> 
> Title inspired by Viva Las Vegas

December 20th 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada 

Yanni groaned when his  alarm went off far earlier than he would have liked. He blindly reached for it, finally hitting it on the third try. The game had started late, ten o'clock according to his body’s clock. They came so close to sending the game to OT, but they’d come up short with three seconds left. 

So, the game sort of sucked.

The entire team decided to go out. Why not? They  _ were _ in Vegas and it could only help erase the tough loss. 

Maybe he shouldn’t have had quite so much fun with such an early flight back to Tampa. 

Yanni stretched and his eyes flew open when his hand hit someone. 

What the…? 

The blackout were curtains drawn, so it was too dark for him to see more than the vague outline of someone. A group of them were splitting a suite, so god only knows who might have stumbled in with him.

Yanni didn't remember much of anything from the night before, maybe the first half an hour at the club. 

He just hoped the guys hadn't let him bring some random person back to their suite, because it was a little unnerving that whoever it was hadn't woken up when Yanni’s alarm went off.

Yanni didn't feel up to dealing with anything at the moment beyond a shower, a Gatorade, and food. In that order. 

And to maybe slide out of bed without waking up whoever, at least until he could find out who was laying there. 

Especially since he just realized he was naked. Shit.

Yanni was halfway out of the bed when someone threw open the door and flipped the light on. Yanni squinted in the direction of the silhouette in the doorway.

“Time to wake up, love birds! Got to go home and face the music!” Slater singsonged. Loudly.

Yanni turned around, still squinting, his eyes could adjust any time now, and saw Jake laying in his bed. 

Relief washed over him.

“Turn the fucking light off, you dick hole. What are you yelling about?” Jake growled.

Slater had a grin plastered on his face. “So, you don't remember, then?”

Yanni could hear a bit of laughter float in from somewhere behind Slater.

“Remember what? Jesus,  _ turn the fucking light off _ !” Jake slapped a hand over his eyes. Yanni watched as he shifted a bit, his anger melting away. “Wait. What am I laying on?” Jake muttered.

Yanni wondered if Jake even knew he was there while he watched Jake dig under his back and pull out a bottle. Of lube. That he glared at confused, before looking around the room, eyes finally landing on a panicking Yanni.

That sent Slater into peals of laughter. “Oh God, you really don't remember anything, not even having sex. Oh god. This is the best day of my fucking life.”

There was an explosion of garbled noise from the living room. Slater slowly slid down the door frame to sprawl onto the floor, still laughing, while Yanni and Jake stared at each other. 

Yanni couldn't help but think Jake looked a little like a fish.

“I'm, uh, gonna hop in the shower,” Yanni mumbled.

“Dude, no. I deserve to shower first,” Jake said, shaking the empty lube at him.

“Or, or, or, you could shower together because you're fucking married,” Slater said from the floor, where he was now crying.

“What?” Yanni and Jake asked together.

Yanni had noticed the tension building between them for years, and sure, sex seemed pretty inevitable, but surely they hadn’t done something as stupid as getting married. Their friends wouldn't let them-- 

Ok, they probably would, but there’s no way someone wouldn't marry them while they were blackout drunk right?  _ Right _ ??

Slater was winding down and was just laying in the floor, body occasionally twitching with giggles. 

Yanni, finally fed up with Slater’s theatrics, walked over and nudged him in the ribs with his foot. “I don't know what kind of fucked up joke this is but get out.”

Slater stilled and looked up at him for a moment. “You really don't remember?”

Yanni shook his head. “I remember about thirty minutes into the club.”

Slater pulled himself from the floor and looked at Jake. “How much do  _ you _ remember?”

“Doing like six shots at the second club. Nothing past that.”

Slater shook his head. “Well, it's not a joke. Check your phones if you don't believe me. Also you've got rings on. Get cleaned up and pack. You've got an hour before we all have to be downstairs.”

As Slater pulled the door closed, Yanni turned to Jake and said, “You can go ahead. I'll start trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.”

“My phone is dead anyway,” Jake said holding it up, the gold on his ring glinting in the light.

Yanni took the phone as Jake passed by on his way to the bathroom. He let his eyes linger on Jake's back side, even though he felt sort of bad for doing it.

Jake pushed the door shut, snapping Yanni out of his stupor. He put Jake’s phone on the charger, a sigh escaping him as he unlocked his own. 

There were so many notifications he didn't know where to start. He cleared them all after scrolling through them for a moment. 

Most of the notifications had been from Instagram, Yanni took a deep breath and opened the app. They had posted four pictures last night. The first two were selfies, one where they were obviously drunk and grinning at each other like idiots, without a caption, for some reason. The second was also a selfie, this time Jake was standing behind him, arm over Yanni’s shoulder and across his chest, pressing a kiss to the side of Yanni’s neck with the caption “Bae”. The third was a picture of them at an alter, Slater was standing next to Jake and Cory was at Yanni’s side, carelessly holding two bouquets and grinning at the camera. This one has the caption “Marrying my best friend”. The last was a picture of their left hands intertwined so both of their rings were visible; the caption just a string of heart emojis. 

There were comments, so many comments, because he was an idiot who got blackout drunk and married a teammate in Vegas and posted it to his public Instagram. Yanni clicked over to Jake's Instagram instead of even attempting to read any of them. 

He'd posted similar pictures but, unlike Yanni, his account was private so it didn’t seem to be as much of a mess.

A call popped up on his screen from his agent, he let it go to voicemail because he wasn't ready for that conversation. Not before he talked to Jake. His mom was going to absolutely murder him. Then Jake's mom was going to kill him again.

He couldn't focus on that, instead he turned his attention to scrolling through text messages. He left the ones that were positive or curious to answer later, but he deleted the rude ones, flat out. There were texts from his agent and Lightning PR telling him to call them immediately. Brian was going to have his head for this PR nightmare.

Yanni frowned, slipping over to Twitter, where he found some DMs from a few guys around the league and beat writers. He decided to ignore those too. He threw his phone on the bed when he heard Jake turn off the water in the bathroom.

Jake emerged with a towel around his hips not even a minute later. Still dripping, even. “How bad is it?”

“We posted pictures on Instagram,” Yanni started, forcing himself to look Jake in the eye. “We should probably talk before we call PR and our agents,” Yanni added, sounding far more confident than he actually felt.

Jake nodded in agreement. “Ok. Whatever you think is best.”

Jake looked small and scared, and suddenly Jake's 23 to Yanni’s 26 seemed like a bigger gap.

“Should we delete…?” Jake started but Yanni shook his head.

“It wouldn’t change anything; they're already out there. We should wait and see what Brian says.”

Jake nodded, digging through his bag and pulling out a pair of brightly colored boxers, reaching for his towel. 

Suddenly Yanni wanted to be anywhere but in that room. Sure, he'd seen Jake naked hundreds, if not thousands, of times in the locker room and sharing hotel rooms, but this felt different.Yanni had hardly admitted his feelings for Jake to himself before they'd woken up married.

“I'm gonna jump in the shower. After you get dressed come talk to me. We can try and kill two birds or whatever,” Yanni said before turning tail and all but running into the bathroom before Jake let his towel loose.

Yanni was in the shower by the time Jake came in and started brushing his teeth.

“So um,” Yanni started. “I didn't know you were into dudes.”

Yanni had always been open, in the locker room anyway, with his  bisexuality, so it sort of bummed him out that Jake hadn't come to him. He had always made it clear to the room at large that he was someone to come to for anyone questioning their sexuality.

Jake spit and rinsed his mouth out before he answered. “Yeah, I'm not really sure,” Jake sighed. “I don't mean-- Not about guys, I like guys, I know that. And girls too. But I just kind of, like, everyone? Maybe I'm pansexual?”

Jake sounded confused and slightly pained, like he was thinking too hard. Yanni longed to chirp him but knew it really wasn't the time. “You don't have to label yourself right now, Jay. I just never realized you aren’t straight.”

“Yes, not straight. That's, what I am,” Jake said, sounding more relaxed. “I've wanted to talk to you about it for a really long time, but I didn't know how to say anything without telling you how I feel about you and I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. Uh, in the locker room or when we had to share rooms, or whatever. Then this year we’re here, finally making it, and there's so much pressure and, there's like no one out in the league and we're. I just, uh, I wasn't sure.”

Yanni stopped what he was doing mid-wash and flicked open the curtain to see Jake sitting on the closed toilet with his head in his hands.

“Jake,” Yanni said. Jake's head snapped up. “I've been in love with you since my birthday in 2014.”

Yanni ducked back into the shower because he wasn’t sure he was ready to see Jake’s face after his sudden confession. Jake saying he had feelings wasn’t necessarily the same as love, and so--.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Yanni answered, his heart beating a million miles a minute in contrast to his calm tone. “That year was a lot for me and you made everything so special. And then on my birthday, I realized what it is that I feel for you.”

“Yeah,” Jake murmured, Yanni hardly heard it over the water, wasn’t even sure he was supposed to be able. “I want to take you on a date,” he said, quite a bit louder.

Yanni couldn't help but laugh. “So, we're doing this backwards, then?”

“At least we waited until marriage to have sex?”

Yanni laughed so hard he had to sit down in the bottom of the tub to keep from falling over. 

“You okay, bro?” Jake, flipped back the shower curtain to check on Yanni. 

“You can't call me bro, we're married!” Yanni snorted with laughter. 

“Yeah, we're married,” Jake said softly.

Yanni smiled up at him. “Yeah we are.”

Jake schooled his face suddenly. “Ok, hurry up so we can have time to eat before we have to get on the bus. I'm going to go look at my phone.”

After Jake left Yanni pulled himself up off of the floor and finished his shower. When he came out of the bathroom Jake was on the phone.

“Mom, I'm sorry. It was kind of, sudden. Yes, I'm going to have to call you back. We need to take care of some things still. I'm sorry. Love you too.”

Yanni was dressed by the time Jake hung up and turned to him.

“She's livid,” Jake told him.

“Yeah. She's going to kill me, isn't she?” Yanni winced.

“Maybe.”

Yanni flopped down on the bed and pulled up Brian’s number.

“Ready?”

Jake nodded, so Yanni hit call.

“Please tell me this is some kind of fucking joke and you aren’t really married,” Brian said in lieu of a greeting.

“No?” Yanni said. “I’m pretty sure we’re really married.”

Brian sighed. “Is Jake there?”

“Yes,” Jake said.

“You're on speakerphone,” Yanni added.

Brian sighed again. “Listen, this is either a huge nightmare from a PR perspective or we can turn this into something positive, for you, for the team, for the league, for _all_ _of hockey_. It’s all in how we handle it. You Can Play is calling and I've talked to both of your agents already. I want you to come in for a sit down with the PR team as soon as you're back in Tampa. Don't post anything. Don't read anything on the internet. Don't make any statements. Don't answer any questions. I already sent out a mass text to everyone else and told them the same thing. Keep your heads down and we'll figure this out. I'll arrange to have your agents on the phone for the meeting. Understand?”

Yanni and Jake both confirmed that they understood and Brian hung up. 

They grabbed their bags and went out into the living room to find Steven, Anton, Ryan, Victor, and Braydon waiting for them.

“Shit,” Jake muttered from behind Yanni.

“We got you some food,” Steven said, pointing to the room service cart. “It’s a total zoo downstairs. They're trying to figure how to get us out of the hotel.”

“What? We're not important enough for that,” Jake said, stuttering a little.

“First of all, do you know how close we are to LA? And second, you  _ are _ that important now, you're the first out NHL players. And you went and made a big deal about getting married in Vegas. That's news, like it or not,” Braydon said.

Yanni and Jake nodded.

“Sit, eat,” Victor said.

They sat down and pulled the trays towards themselves and dug in. Steven let them each get a few bites down before he started talking. 

“This wasn’t the way to do this. This extra press and pressure is going to be really tough on you two. You see how irresponsible this was right?”

Anton didn’t give them a chance to answer before he said, “This is going to make things a lot harder for you, both of you. It’s going to make things more difficult for the rest of us to. The press is going to be ruthless. The fans, the people who pretend to be fans, are going to be horrible. We are all behind you, a hundred percent, but I don’t think either of you really understand what’s coming.”

“People suck, I mean they’re the fucking worst. And the worst of them are turning their attention to us, to all of us, but you two are going to get the brunt if it,” Ryan said. “This might be the stupidest thing I’ve seen someone do in all the years I’ve played.”

“We’ve always known that there was  _ something _ between the two of you but we never thought that you would be idiotic enough to get drunk and  _ married _ or we probably would have kept a closer eye on you,” Braydon huffed.  

All they could do was take it, they had no defense, everything the vets were saying was true. They'd been careless, stupid, reckless, and a million other things. They both nodded along, knowing the veterans were right.

After they were done Ryan said, “Don't get us wrong, we're happy for you, but this just wasn't the way to do it.”

“And don't worry, the morons with you last night already got their lecture,” Victor told them.

“We're going to go on a date,” Jake said quietly.

Everyone in front of them cracked a smile.

“Good,” Steven replied. 

“I know this isn’t the way it’s usually done, but I really think we can make this work,” Yanni said. 

“I hope so. For your sake, and ours,” Anton told them, looking solemn. 

  


Getting them out of the hotel was every bit of the nightmare they were warned it would be.

They pulled their hats down low while the other guys and some hotel staff ran interference. Once they were on the bus they hid in the back. They had to go through the entire process in reverse to get off the bus, but at least Yanni knew what to expect.

Jake and Yanni settled into the back of the plane and, mercifully, everyone left them alone since the reality of it all was really hitting them after running a press gauntlet twice. 

Yanni turned on a movie on his tablet and shared a headphone with Jake in effort to relax them but Jake was still fidgeting. Yanni reached over and took one of Jake’s hands in his and laced their fingers together. Jake relaxed at the contact, to the point where he started snoring on Yanni’s shoulder, not even ten minutes later.

Yanni spent the entire four and a half hours worrying about everything, most of it not even connected. From the fan reception of their marriage, to what Yzerman was going to say, and even if he should move in with Jake or Jake should move in with him. 

When the plane landed and he shook Jake awake, Yanni still hadn’t worked out any answers and all he wanted to do was go home and talk to Jake, but that wasn’t in the cards. 

Yanni handed Jake a Gatorade as they made their way off the plane and towards his car. Yanni couldn’t help but be glad that they rode together as they made their way to his SUV. 

The silence was stifling, with Jake staring out at the heavy traffic and not saying a single word until Yanni looked at him when they got into Channelside. 

“We’re almost there, are you ready to do this?” Yanni asked him. 

“I guess,” Jake answered, rubbing at his eyes. 

They took the elevator with Coop, who didn’t speak or even really look at them. 

“We can do this, okay?” Yanni gave Jake’s hand a little squeeze before they walked into the conference room.

Seeing Steve there made Yanni thank god he hadn’t been on the trip. He couldn’t imagine walking out of his room to that face rather than his teammates. He didn’t look mad at them… actually he didn’t look much of anything; his face was set in its usual emotionless mask. 

A couple of the coaches filed in after them, everyone was in small groups talking and nobody had acknowledged Jake and Yanni yet. Jake was shuffling and fidgeting, Yanni gave Jake’s hand another little squeeze as the shuffling got Brian’s attention. 

“Hey guys I didn’t see you come in,” Brian said. his eyes drifted down to their hands. “Oh, you’re actually--?”

“What? Gay?” Jake snapped. 

“No, together. We thought-- Ok, never mind what we thought, but this changes things,” Brian said. “Let’s all sit down.”

“How long have you two been seeing each other?” Brian asked.

“Since, last night?” Yanni said, hesitantly.

“What do you mean?” Brian asked, rubbing his hand over his face.

“We, uh, we’ve had feelings for a while but we didn’t actually have that conversation until this morning,” Yanni explained, playing with his water bottle rather than making eye contact with anyone.

“We can’t do a press release saying you guys got married and then realized you were in love. We need a backstory,” the dark haired girl, whose name Yanni couldn’t remember, said.

Jake spoke for the first time since they’d sat down. “We’ve played together for years, have always had feelings for each other but didn’t really say anything at first. Then when we came up together last year we got closer and have been together since. Getting married in Vegas was the right choice for us, but maybe we should have done so a little more discreetly...?”

The PR team all glanced at each other, Yanni took it to mean that Jake’s suggestion was a good one. 

Brian nodded. “Stick as close to the truth as possible. That sounds good.”

Everyone, agents on the speakerphones included, agreed. 

Brian told the agents he would get with them on the press release they would be making before he dismissed everyone. 

On the way out Coop stopped and hugged both of them, congratulating them before Steve took the opportunity to clap each of them on the shoulder with a brilliant smile. 

Jake and Yanni chose to take the stairs, mostly because both of their agents called them individually as soon as they walked out of the conference room. 

The calls took up all of the short drive back to their building. Yanni hung up just as he was pulling into his parking spot. He leaned his head back on the headrest and rubbed his face while Jake ended his own call.

“At least everyone has stopped yelling at us,” Jake said, reaching over and taking Yanni’s hand over the console. 

“Yeah,” Yanni agreed. He bit his bottom lip, pondering, then continued, “You know we still need to talk, about us and how we want to do this. Do you want to come to my place or me to yours?”

They lived three floors apart in the same building, and that wasn’t much, but Yanni didn’t really want to separate yet. 

Jake looked uncomfortable. “Can we, not, yet? I need a little more time to think.”

“Okay, but we have practice later,” Yanni reminded him. 

Jake nodded. “After practice.”

“You can not just avoid this and hope it goes away Jacob.”

“I know. I know, I promise,” Jake assured him. “We will talk after practice. I think you need a nap anyway.”

They grabbed their bags and went inside, Jake getting off the elevator before Yanni. 

Yanni made his way into his quiet, sparsely furnished apartment, dropping his bags in the living room. He knew he needed to call his parents, and probably a lot of other people, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it right then. He downed another Gatorade, set his alarm, and fell into bed. 

  


Yanni called his parents after he woke up. They were understandably confused but he told them the truth, minus how he and Jake had woken up, and explained the spin the team was going to put on it. They understood but his mom was especially sad that she hadn’t been there, so Yanni promised to talk to Jake about having a wedding, or at least a reception, sometime in the summer. 

As usual, Yanni and Jake timed their departure perfectly, meeting in elevator on the way down to the parking lot. 

“Hey,” Jake said, bumping into Yanni on the empty elevator. 

“Hey,” Yanni answered, leaning his head into Jake’s side for the duration of the elevator ride. 

They stopped and picked up Adam on the way, more because it was hot than the length of his walk. And Yanni would feel like a dick if they just drove by him. 

“Do  _ you _ remember what happened?” Yanni asked Adam after a moment of tense silence. 

Adam was shaking his head when Yanni glanced into the mirror. “Not entirely. I remember you two all over each other, which didn’t really surprise any of us. And then I remember someone singing the going to the chapel song and buying rings but other than that I’ve got nothing. I’m not entirely sure that I’m sober now.”

Yanni glanced down at his hand on the steering wheel. Seeing his ring made him suddenly realize that Jake wasn’t wearing his. 

“It’s on my necklace,” Jake said, almost like he could read Yanni’s mind. “Just for practice.”

Yanni nodded. “I’ll need to do that too.”

The guys and the staff were all there, already waiting for them when they made it into the locker room. Someone had hastily decorated with stick tape streamers and there was a homemade cake that said “Congrats Jake and Yanni!”

“Oh, oh thank you guys,” Yanni said, eyes getting a little watery. 

“Kyla said to tell you that she’s sorry it isn’t better, but she was a little rushed. And with the baby and all,” Ryan said. 

“No, it’s amazing. Tell her thank you so much,” Yanni said. 

“Yes, thank her for us,” Jake echoed. 

After a few bro hugs Coop told them to get into their gear and they could have cake afterwards. He didn’t want anyone puking on the ice. 

Practice was good, especially considering, well, everything. They all stayed after practice for a little while for cake, chirping Jake and Yanni about how ridiculous it was that they hadn’t realized their feelings for each other until they woke up married. 

Eventually the room attendants were kicking them all out and the leftover cake was sent home with Anton, for his kids. Jake needed to see the trainer for a little while so Yanni settled into the player’s lounge and started answering texts from friends and DMs from guys around the league.

Yanni was just finishing up his replies when the thought of maybe letting Adam live in either his or Jake’s apartment, whichever of them moved out, wandered into his mind. 

“Hey, everything ok?” Yanni asked when Jake finally reappeared. 

“Yeah, sorry. I just had this knot in my back I couldn’t get rid of,” Jake told him. 

“Is it feeling better?” Yanni asked, taking Jake’s hand as they walked through the halls to the back door.

 

“Mostly, I might need it worked on after morning skate tomorrow,” Jake answered. 

There were more fans hanging out when they left than they’d expected. A few even had signs congratulating them, but they didn’t stop. Brian had told them not to for a little while. They both waved and Yanni honked as they pulled out. 

“I talked to my mom again,” Jake said once they were on the road. 

“Oh yeah?”

“She wants us to have a proper wedding this summer,” Jake said as he picked at a hangnail. 

“Mine does too. Maybe we should just give them each others’ numbers and let them plan it,” Yanni said with a laugh.

“Only if they let us help some,” Jake said quietly. 

“I’m sure they will,” Yanni said, reaching over to take Jake’s hand again.

They drove the rest of the way in companionable silence. Compared to their first drive to the arena when the atmosphere was tense, this drive relaxed Yanni rather and wound him up.  

“Let me drop my bag off and I’ll come up to your place,” Jake said as they climbed out of Yanni’s car. 

“Yeah sure, I’ll start dinner,” Yanni nodded. 

Yanni pulled out the ingredients for chicken fajitas and got to prepping. He was just heating the stove when Jake showed up and flopped down onto His Chair at Yanni’s island. 

Huh, maybe he should have noticed something a little sooner.

“You ok?” Yanni asked, glancing up from the vegetables he was cutting. 

“Yeah sorry, I couldn’t sleep before practice.”

Yanni laughed and went back to slicing. “You drooled on me all the way across the country. You didn’t need another nap.”

Jake shrugged. “Hangovers are tough ok? I was thinking about us instead of napping.”

“Oh yeah?” Yanni asked, stopping again. There was something in the way Jake said it made Yanni nervous. 

“Yeah just like logistics. Where should we live, and where we should spend the summer. We don’t usually train together, in the same place. Just stuff like that,” Jake explained. 

Yanni’s face lit up. “I’ve been thinking about that too. What were you thinking?”

“Well, I want to move in with you, for starters.”

“We do spend more time here than at your place,” Yanni nodded in agreement.

“And maybe we could split time between our trainers?”

“That also sounds quite reasonable.” Yanni threw a pat of butter into the hot pan.

“Um, and maybe we can take a couple weeks out of our summer for a honeymoon?” Jake sounded nervous, but Yanni could feel himself beaming at the very thought.

“After our second wedding, right?” 

“Yeah, of course.” Jake smiled shyly. “We can do this.”

“Yeah we can. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Bright Light City Gonna Set My Soul on Fire (the Blackout remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16150025) by [Lecavayay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lecavayay/pseuds/Lecavayay)




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